Travelling from Switzerland to Petersburg in the nineteenth century

In the very beginning of his famous fiction The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky describes how one of his characters spent in a third-class carriage of the Warsaw train, travelling from Switzerland to Petersburg, and how Russian November nights differ from European countries such as Switzerland or the north of Italy, especially after the train passed Eydtkuhnen into Russia.

 

In Petersburg, the destination of the train, there stood the Warsaw Train Station, built in 1858/9 in the neo Renaissance style, a decade prior to the publication of Dostoevsky’s novel. Unfortunately, this building ‘has ended its existence as an ordinary railway terminus’ (http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/warsaw.html) in the modern days and it is now used as a museum since 5 August 2001.

 

The name of a town Eydtkuhnen, described as if it were the climate watershed between Europe and Russia, could be found in East Prussia. According to Kimura, the town located on the borderline between Prussia and Russia in those days, and now it belongs to Russia, under the name of Chernyshevskoye.

 

 

Reference:

l        Book

Kimura, Hiroshi (Tran.) (1992), Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Idiot

K.K. Shincho-sha, Tokyo

 

l        Internet

Garnett, Constance (Tran.) (2004), Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Idiot

Fine Creative Media Inc, New York, Google Books (accessed 11/03/2010)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s2zwlWGq65AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dostoevsky+idiot&source=bl&ots=yTEWAaQCJL&sig=7CDbadblmHTtjKH770NCXkWHyns&hl=en&ei=seuYS6CnLpLm7AOTgpHICA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

Nevsky Prospekt.com (2010), The former Warsaw Train Station (Varshavsky Vokzal-Sankt Peterburg) (accessed 11/03/2010)

http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/warsaw.html

 

Victor, Edward (2002), Eydthuhnen (Chernyshevskoye), Russia, Synagogues on Postcard and Stamps – Synagogues by Country (accessed 11/03/2010)

http://www.edwardvictor.com/Eydtkuhnen.htm

The Mitanni

The Mitanni was an ancient kingdom or empire of an Indo-European people in northern Mesopotamia. Although the known facts relating to this country is limited, the history about this nation would be roughly described as following:

 

The rise of the Mitanni coincides with the decline of the Old Babylonian Empire in c. 1600 BCE. Although the location of important cities of the Mitanni is yet unidentified, their heartland could be assumed to the upper Mesopotamia, southeast of Turkey or east of modern Syria. Expansion of the Mitanni enabled the neighbouring Hittite king Mursili I to ‘proceed along the Euphrates and sack Babylon, probably in 1595 BCE’ (http://www.livius.org/mi-mn/mitanni/mitanni.html). As a result of such movements, by c. 1500 BCE, it is said that king Parrattarna of Mitanni became to be able to take control of the city of Aleppo in Syria, halfway between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean.

In the 1400s BCE, the Egyptian pharaohs showed their interests on this area and Thutmose III defeated the Mitanni king in his eighth campaign for the first time. However, because Egyptians did not have enough power to sustain their rule in Syria for a long time, eventually, ‘friendly relations were established by pharaoh Tuthmose IV (1401-1391) and Artatama I of Mitanni’ (ibid).

Meanwhile, the Mitanni oppressed Assyria in c. 1415 BCE and established their rule in the areas such as southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran.

The importance of the Mitanni in its heydays can be confirmed by the following facts: several kings of Hittite had Hurrian names, language the Mitanni spoke; and the Egyptian kings such as Tuthmose IV and Amenhotep III married to Mitannian princesses.

Nonetheless, the fall of the Mitanni was sudden and unclear. It is said that when a young king Tušratta succeeded the throne, in the northeast ‘a man named Artatama II seems to have created a kingdom of his own’ (ibid). Such division within the kingdom inevitably invited the Hittite’s invasion into the Mitanni, and in his second attempt, the Hittite king Suppiluliuma (1344-1322) managed to capture the capital of the Mitanni. Furthermore, at the same time, the self-claimed king Artatama II became a ‘puppet king of a reborn Assyria, led by king Aššur-Uballit I (1364-1328)’ (ibid).

 

Ironically, the Egyptian kings, ‘who might have saved Mitanni, were too occupied with their own affairs to send help’ (ibid), due to the confusion caused by Amenhotep IV (1353-1336) and the mysterious early death of his successor, Tutankhamen (1336-1327).

 

Reference:

Akhenaten’s World (1999), The Mitanni (Naharin), nations (accessed 06/03/2010)

http://www.nigli.net/akhenaten/mitann_1.html

 

Lendering, Jona (2008), Itanni, Livius.org (revised 20/11/2008, accessed 06/03/2010)

http://www.livius.org/mi-mn/mitanni/mitanni.html

‘Time’ in the Taoism

What is time? It would be an idea that must have been invented for a convenience for humans to measure the lapse of days and to identify the seasons. In other words, if it is only an idea or a notion, then it would be inevitably possible to say that actually, time does not exist.

 

However, the concepts or perceptions of such time were quite different in the ancient Oriental world. For example, in Taoism, the idea would be summed up as following quotation:

 

‘Time consists simply of the events of Nature that originate from the eternal Tao, a nothingness that is fullness because it is unlimited, unbounded, unnamed. Time is the movement of Tao in nature, following the law of… acting by not-acting, and the law of reversion, where opposites complement and complete each other in one whole and where the end is also the beginning’ (http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III-11/chapter_xx.htm).

 

To make understanding easier, it would be helpful to have a glance at some basic features of the Taoism. According to the BBC web site, Taoism is ‘an ancient tradition of philosophy and religious belief’, ‘originated in China 2000 years ago’. In which, the concept called Tao ‘is the ultimate creative principle of the universe’, however, the Tao ‘is not God and is not worshipped’. In addition, it also involves ‘a religion of unity and opposites; Yin and Yang’, which ‘sees the world as filled with complementary forces’ such as ‘action and non-action, light and dark, hot and cold, and so on’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/taoism/ataglance/glance.shtml).

 

 

Reference:

BBC (2009), Taoism at a glance, Religions (updated 24/08/2009, accessed 05/03/2010)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/taoism/ataglance/glance.shtml

 

Manuel, B. DY, Jr. (year unkonwn), Chapter XX: A Passage to Eternity, The Chinese View of Time (accessed 05/03/2010)

http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III-11/chapter_xx.htm

Who’s who? – Cesare Borgia

Cesare Borgia is known as one of ideal military captains largely due to favourable opinions attached to him in The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. However, some point out that ‘he was certainly not a man of genius’ because ‘his success was chiefly due to the support of the papacy’ (http://www.nndb.com/people/172/000092893/), to whose son he was born.

 

Cesare Borgia was born in Rome, in c. 1476, son of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and his mistress Vannozza Catanei. Although he was never a priest, he ‘was created a cardinal after he had become a deacon in 1493’ (Bull, p. 87). After his father was elevated to Pope Alexander VI in 1492, he married Charlotte d’Albret, sister of the king of Navarre, in May 1499, and worked mainly as papal legate to various countries. In July 1497, he was sent to Naples to crown Frederic king of Aragon, then in August 1498, to France to hand Loius XII the papal bull, which was crucial for the king to sort his marriage status out. Subsequently, he was sent to Romagna to subdue the local despots with a massive army including French, Gascony and Swiss soldiers. He led the army successfully and won his opponents’ surrender by 22 January 1500.

In the second expedition to Romagna, he defeated Astorre Manfredi within six months by April 1501, and betrayed the promise he made when Manfredi surrendered: to spare his life, after sending him prisoner to Rome.

His father Pope Alexander VI created him duke of Romagna and in his peak, ‘His cruelty, his utter want of scruple, and his good fortune made him a terror to all Italy’ (http://www.nndb.com/people/172/000092893/), since it was almost explicitly attributed to him who must have been in charge of the deaths of following people: his brother Giovanni, duke of Gandia, murdered in 1497 and the duke of Biscegli, his brother-in-law, killed by Cesare in his self defence, in 1500.

 

However, his downfall began soon after his father’s death on 18 August 1503. His enemies rose up against him, especially in Romagna and Rome, and this made him had to leave Rome in September 1503, to Spain where he could expect cardinals there would treat him friendly. After a quite short papacy of Pius III, who died on 18 October 1503, the conclave elected Giuliano della Rovere as the Pope Julius II, the enemy of Borgia’s house and Spanish cardinals. Julius II, who was elected on 1 November 1503, declared that Borgia’s territories must be restored to the church, and as a result of elaborate manipulations, finally he was arrested by Gonzalo do Cordova, the Spanish governer, who was ordered by Ferdinand of Spain in May 1504.

In November 1506, Borgia managed to escape from imprisonment and fled to the king of Navarre, his brother-in-law. Although he could serve to the king for a while, in the following year, he joined to the besieging of the castle of Viana and lost his life during the battle on 12 March 1507.

 

Reference:

l        Book

Bull, George tran.(2003), Penguin Classics: The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

Penguin Books, London

 

l        Internet

Soylent Communications (2010), Cesare Borgia, NNDB: tracking the entire world (accessed 03/03/2010)

http://www.nndb.com/people/172/000092893/

The Hittites

The Hittites are one of ancient Indo-European people who formed their kingdom in the area between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, roughly from the seventeenth to twelfth centuries BCE.

They started running their kingdom in the central Anatolia and extended their territory to northern Syria and Babylon by c. 1590 BCE. Their kingdom, or empire, reached its height in the period between 1400 and 1200 BCE, when they struggled for the dominations of the neighbouring kingdoms such as Mitanni and Syria. The Hittites took part in one of the greatest battles of the ancient world, in which they fought against Egypt, at Kadesh on the Orontes in 1299 BCE.

However, the fall of the kingdom suddenly happened from c. 1193 BCE onward and by 710 BCE, the last remaining political independence of Neo-Hittites city-state was obliterated by being incorporated by the Assyria.

 

In addition, the Old Testament refers to the Hittites for several times. Especially in Genesis 25:10, they appear as ‘sons of Heth’, who sold the field to Abraham for burying his wife Sarah, in Hebron. However, according to archaeological researches, it is confirmed so far that ‘northern Hittite troops did not go farther south than Damascus. No neo-Hittite states (Hittites referred to in later books—1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles) have been found south of Hamath, so that also excludes any territory in Palestine’ (http://www.christianodyssey.com/bible/hittite.htm).

 

 

Reference:

l        Book

Ivy Books ed. (1991), The Holy Bible: King James Version

Ballantine Books, New York

 

l        Internet

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010), Hittite (accessed 27/02/2010)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/268123/Hittite

 

Graham, Sheila (2006), Where did the Hittites come from, and does it matter?, Christian Odyssey (accessed 27/02/2010)

http://www.christianodyssey.com/bible/hittite.htm

 

Guisepi, Robert A. (2003), The Hittites: A history of the Hittites including their cities, kings, art and contributions to civilization, International World History Project (accessed 27/02/2010)

http://history-world.org/hittites.htm

Brief biography of Thomas Carlyle with a quotation

Following is a quotation from Sator Resartus by Thomas Carlyle:

 

‘SILENCE and SECRECY! Altars might still be raised to them (were this an altar-building time) for universal worship. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they are thenceforth to rule. Not William the Silent only, but all the considerable men I have known, and the most undiplomatic and unstrategic of these, forbore to babble of what they were creating and projecting. Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do thou thyself but _hold thy tongue for one day_: on the morrow, how much clearer are thy purposes and duties; what wreck and rubbish have those mute workmen within thee swept away, when intrusive noises were shut out! Speech is too often not, as the Frenchman defined it, the art of concealing Thought; but of quite stifling and suspending Thought, so that there is none to conceal. Speech too is great, but not the greatest. As the Swiss Inscription says: _Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden_ (Speech is silvern, Silence is golden); or as I might rather express it: Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.

"Bees will not work except in darkness; Thought will not work except in Silence: neither will Virtue work except in Secrecy…’ (http://www.classicauthors.net/Carlyle/SartorResartus/SartorResartus24.html).

 

Thomas Carlyle is a Scottish born British thinker in the nineteenth century. He was born in Ecclefechan in Scotland, in 1795, as a son of a stonemason, and finished his education in Edinburgh University, where he studied arts and mathematics. Having graduated in 1813, he worked as a teacher until 1818, when he moved back to Edinburgh and became an article writer for local encyclopaedia and review magazine. He also began his career as a translator from German to English and an author until he moved to London in 1826. In English capital, he became a close friend of John Stuart Mill, a famous philosopher, and published several books of history and his own thoughts. He also wrote for several magazines (quotation above was originally written for the Fraser’s Magazine in 1833-34) and newspapers such as The Times. He died in 1881.

  

Reference:

Cyber Studios Inc. (2010), Sator Resartus by Thomas Carlyle, Book III: Symbols (accessed 26/02/2010)

http://www.classicauthors.net/Carlyle/SartorResartus/SartorResartus24.html

 

Simkin, John (2003), Spartacus Educational (accessed 276/02/2010)

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jcarlyle.htm

Stephanus Numbers for quoting Plato

Quoting from any written text, regardless to its form such as books, magazines, newspapers or even web pages, usually requires to indicate its reference, especially in academic fields, in a proper way. Usually, it is required to use the Harvard reference system, however, when it comes to quote from classical texts, there are several exceptions: notably quoting from the Bible.

Similarly, when it comes to quote from Plato, usually it would be done by indicating a combination of Arabic digits and five alphabet letters: a, b, c, d and e. These numbers and letters are all referring to Plato’s works edited and published in 1578 in Geneva by Henricus Stephanus, therefore, are also called Stephanus Numbers.

 

So how does this work? In this system, every digit indicates a page number of this edition. Furthermore, ‘Each page of this edition is split into two columns, the right one providing the Greek text and the left one a Latin translation (by Jean de Serres). In between the two columns are printed letters from a to e dividing the column into five sections’ (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/lithum/wong/stephanus.html). Therefore, whenever someone quotes from any Plato’s work, it does not matter from what edition the quotation is taken, as long as the Stephanus Number, with the title of Plato’s work, is given.

 

Reference:

Suzanne, Bernard (year unknown), Quoting Plato: Stephanus Numbers (accessed 25/02/2010)

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/lithum/wong/stephanus.html

Chalcidius, a translator

Timaeus is one of Plato’s important works. However, it is widely accepted that basically most of Plato’s works and his thoughts had been forgotten for ages in the Western Europe until the Renaissance period. Nonetheless, it had been not impossible to read at least some of Plato’s texts because it is known that some of them have been translated into Latin. As far as Timaeus concerns, it is said that its ‘first fifty-three chapters’ were translated in Latin by Chalcidius. Therefore, it is argued that Plato’s ‘influence on European thought can be said to be continuous from its publication until the present day’ (Lee, pg. 7).

 

Even so, it is also discussed that Chalcidius’ translation was not done in a genuinely academic manner but was done for a somewhat biased cause. Chalcidius was a Greek scholar lived in the second or third century AD. Generally, it is acknowledged that ‘he provided knowledge of Greek natural history to the West’ (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Chalcidius.html), mainly through translations. Simultaneously, according to Jones, the time Chalcidius lived ‘falls within the period dominated by neo-Platonism’, therefore ‘it is perhaps only natural that he has sometimes regarded as a member of this school’ (http://www.jstor.org/pss/263118). As long as the contents of Timaeus rather concern to theological issues, it would be formidable to know that a translation of this book might had been done for some biased causes.

 

Reference:

l        Book

Lee, Desmond (tran.) (1977), Plato: Timaeus and Critias

Penguin Books, London

 

l        Internet

Jones, Roger Miller (2010), Chalcidius and Neo-Platonism (1918), JSTOR, trusted archives for scholarship (accessed 23/02/2010)

http://www.jstor.org/pss/263118

 

Weisstein, Eric W. (2007), Chalcidius (ca. 300), Wolfram Research – World of Biography – Branch of Science – Scholars – Nationality – Greek (accessed 23/02/2010)

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Chalcidius.html

Which gender the God in Genesis is?

‘There are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,’ (Gen 2:4).

It is claimed by scholars that there is a theoretical break between the first and the second halves of the sentence above. Although in this entry, this research does not pursue the difference arose from this theoretical break, it would be safe to say that the original text of Genesis from the second half of its chapter two verse four onward might have been written in ‘the second half of the 10th century bce, in (king) Solomon’s time’ (http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/genesis.html).

 

In Chapters two and three, Genesis tells a famous story of the first mankind: Adam and Eve. By being given the text, if someone was asked to identify the gender of the God and the writer of Genesis, that one would usually answer that both of them must have been males. Because, firstly, both Adam and the God are characterised with their productive abilities; e.g., the God creates the whole world whilst Adam gives names to all the creatures. On the contrary, Eve, a female character, is finally created by the God after Adam failed to find him a help mate from every living creature the God had created for him. Secondly, the creation of woman results in an unpleasant consequence that makes the God expels both Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. In doing so, the God punishes woman by multiplying sorrow for her most representative ability for productiveness: child delivering.

 

From these points of view, it would be easier to presume that the original writer of this text must have had pro-male perspective, probably because the writer was a man, without taking the historical and social backdrops into consideration. In addition, it can be said that gender of the God, described by this male author, is obviously male because the text clearly says, by using a male pronoun, ‘God ended his work’ (Gen 2:1, italicised by the author).

 

However, taking every pronoun granted in texts translated from different language is not safe. In Hebrew, in which the original text was written, it is known that every noun has grammatical gender. Therefore, whilst ‘Each object is masculine or feminine’, ‘There are no gender-neutral pronouns in Hebrew, i.e. there is no equivalent of the English "it". Everything is a "he" or a "she"’ (http://www.colorq.org/bible/default.aspx?d=Historical_Background&x=gender).

 

Overall, provisionally it would be safe to say that although the author of Genesis seems quite likely to be a male person, as for the gender of the God, it is difficult to make sure from only being given the text.

 

Reference:

Books

Anon (1998), The Bible: Authorized King James Version

Oxford World’s Classics ed. Oxford

 

Ivy Books ed. (1991), The Holy Bible, King James Version

Published by Ballantine Books, New York

 

Internet

ColorQ World (year unknown), Is God really male? Grammatical gender in Hebrew and gender in the spiritual realm, Bible story corner (accessed 21/02/2010)

http://www.colorq.org/bible/default.aspx?d=Historical_Background&x=gender

 

Delahoyde, Michael and Hughes (2008), Genesis 1-3 Creation and Eden, Mythology and Humanities in Ancient Western Culture – The Ancient World (updated 03/07/2008, accessed 21/02/2010)

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/genesis.html

Jacob became Israel

The etymology of the word ‘Israel’ can be traced back to a story depicted in the Old Testament. In Genesis 32:28, the God says ‘Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed’ (Ivy Books, pg. 34). Before the above line, the God wrestles with Jacob for all night long and the word Israel (yisra’el) originally meant ‘he that striveth with God’ in ancient Hebrew (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=israel&searchmode=none). So, who is Jacob and why should he wrestle with the God in where?

 

Jacob is one of twin brothers along with Esau, who were born between Isaac, Abraham’s son, and his wife Rebekah. Jacob was named after his deed when he was born: taking hold of Esau’s heel (Gen 25:26). In chapter 28, being told by his father Isaac, Jacob leaves Beersheba where he has been living with his family. When he comes back home again, he already has two wives: Lear and Rachel. Summing up this situation, he says thanking to God ‘I only had my stick when I crossed this river Jordan. Now I have become two large groups of people and animals’ (Gen 32:10 http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/genesis-mwks3-lbw.htm).

Soon after this, one night he wakes up and sends everything he has, including his two wives and eleven children he has got so far, across the Jabbok River (Gen 32:22-23). Then he remains alone and this is the occasion where the God, appears as a man, comes to fight him until next morning.

 

After Isaac’s death and other several deeds, the famine affects Canaan and Jacob decides to move to Egypt with all of his family members, by being told by the God in chapter 46. In addition, he thanks the God for being informed that one of his son Joseph, who has been supposed to be lost, is yet alive.

 

Reference:

l        Book

Ivy Books (1991), The Holy Bible, King James Version

Published by Ballantine Books, New York

 

l        Internet

Harper, Douglas (2001), Online Etymology Dictionary (accessed 20/02/2010)

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=israel&searchmode=none

 

Shoenburg, Shira (2010), Joseph (ca. 1562-1452 BCE), Jewish Virtual Library (accessed 20/02/2010)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Joseph.html

 

Wetherill, Marie and Keith Simons (2006), God Helps Isaac and Jacob, Easy English Bible (accessed 20/02/2010)

http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/genesis-mwks3-lbw.htm